first detailed look inside the when the jury was out of the room. fedex delivery man trickg his way into a home. the robber and an accomplice tieing up the family inside, making off with over $100,000 in cash and jewels. >> this is a guy coming out of this door, pushing this big black box. >> the warning from fedex to customers. the price you pay for holiday air travel why the best time to buy may be now. >> announcer: this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt good evening, everyone as we come on the air tonight, there are several breaking developments surrounding the presidential impeachment inquiry house and senatealso inteleleas whistleblower complae th today confirming president trump asked his ukrainian counterpart to investigate his political foe joe biden during a july phone call today, president trump metce whk

mr. trump insisting he did nothing wrong. peter alexander begins our coverage. >> reporter: late tonight, president trump firing back. >> no push, no pressure, no nothing. it's all a hoax, folks, it's all a big hoax. >> reporter: the president defiant following the white house's release of this five-page memo detailing his july phone call with ukraine's president, zelensky. >> it's a joke impeachment for that when you have a wonderful meeting or you have a wonderful phone conversation >> reporter: but democrats say the president's words amount to an impeachable offense. >> i'm glad the president released this transcript, but it is absolutely stanbalances rema. >> reporter: that call begins with president trump congratulati

was withholding hundreds of millions oy aid, emphasizes the united states is very, very good to ukraine. when zelensky says he's thankful for the u.s.'s military support and expresses a desire to buy more military equipment, president trump says i would like you to do us a favor though, asking ukraine to investigate matters involving the 2016 election meddling inquiry. the president saying i would like to have the attorney general, william barr, call you or your people and i would like to get to the bottom of it. >> notes of that call indicate the president of the united states shaking down a foreign leader, essentially undermining the national security of this political gain. >> tonight, democrats zeroing in on the next portion of the conversation where the presiden lot of talk about biden's son, that biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that, so whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great. biden went around bragng it,t sounds horrible to me. the president is referencing

thiniaicgovernment to fire its top prosecutor, who had investigated a ukrainian company that gave biden's son, hunter, a paid position on its board but that prosecutor was widely viewed as weak on corruption and there's no evidence biden did anything wrong the justice department says the president never spoke to barr about the request. >> you take a look at that call, it was perfect i didn't do it there was no quid pro quo. >> reporter: though adam schiff says the memo is far more damaging than he expected. >> what those notes reflect is a classic mafia-likeke >> reporter: but tonight, ukraine's president with president trump today says that's not how he viewed the conversation. iging joe biden? >> when we spoke about many things and i -- so i think and you read it that nobody pusheme yes. >> in other words, no pressure. >> mr. president -- >> because you know what

there was no pressure. >> reporter: tonight, republicans are defending the president. >> i think it's very appropriate for the president of the united states suggests that you've got a corruption problem. from my point of view to impeach any president over a phone call like this would be insane. >> reporter: now the president facing the prospect of impeachment over a call he made the day after special counsel robert mueller testified. >> i thought we won. i thought it was dead. it was dead. the mueller report, no obstruction, no collusion. >> reporter: lester, members of the house and senate intelligence committees are getting their first look at that whistleblower complaint that was just turned over by the white as early as tomorrow, the whistleblower could meet with lawmakers, the same day the director of national intelligence will testify. >> peter, thank you. at that news conference, the president pointing to those comments by the ukrainian president today describing their call as so innocent. our chief white house correspondent hallie jackson was there and what's the reaction from the white house tonight >> reporter: lester, good evening. publicly, it's a show of

defiance from president trump, but privately, some of the president's allies behind the scenes acknowledge much more concern than what you are seeing reflected in front of the cameras, based on how this story unfolded one source i spoke with close with the president mentioned there is a solid wall of republican support on capitol hill that may help emboldened the president moving forward president trump fiercely defended his personal attorney, rudy giuliani. he has worked to paint the events of the last 24 hours as a witch hunt part two. and he has tried to make the argument that democrats will paralyze congress legislativel by moving forward with this impeachment fight. lester >> hallie jackson in new york, thanks. we want to take a closer look this evening at the controversial role of the president's personal lawyer rudy giuliani, who figure prominently in that conversation with the ukrainian president kristen welker now has that part of the story.

suggesting he already knew what was in the white house account between the phone call of the president and the leader of ukraine before it was made public >> mr. mayor, can i ask you, did you read the transcript? >> like i say, it was read to me. >> it was read to you, the whole thing? >> i hope. >> reporter: giuliani, the president's personal attorney, figures prominently in that conversation. he was first brought up by president zelensky, saying, we are hoping very much that mr. giuliani will be able to travel to ukraine the president saying, if you could speak to him, that would be great later bringing up the idea of investigating joe biden and his son. "the washington post" citing current and former u.s. officials of a month-long fight inside administration that sidelined national security officials and empowered loyalest including giuliani today nbc's hallie jackson with the president. >> why do you think it's appropriate for your personal attorney to get involved in government business? >> you'd have to ask rudy.

i'll tell you this, that rudy is looking to also find out where the phony witch hunt started, how it started >> reporter: tonight in a letter to the justice department, democrats demanding a review to see if the actions of rudy uliani with ukraine broke federal law. >> giuliani is negotiating apparently on behalf of the president of the united states, but in effect, potentially betraying our national and security interests. t a senior administration official telling nbc news, giuliani's assertion that the state department asked for his assistance is false. lester >> all right kristen welker tonight, thank you. let's bring in chuck todd now in washington and andrea mitchell in new york to talk more about this andrea, you've covered seven presidentshe cversation. what stood out to you? >> what is surprising to a lot of people whom i've talked to, former officials, some current

officials, democrats as well as privately republicans is he's raising the issue of a political opponent, joe biden and biden's family to a newly-elected lead tore a vulnerable country invaded by russia, needs military aid, only one week after he had frozen congressionally approved military aid, weapons for this leader so this gives him so much leverage he doesn't have to say anything explicitly and it raises a lot of questions about how he's conducting foreign policy >> chuck, the white house put out this memo of the call. the president insisting it would help him, nothing to see here. 24 hours later, though, is the pls in a much worse r or worse place because all of a sudden not a justice department that is implicated by this phone call with, the president makes reference to his attorney general justice department says they don't know -- the attorney general doesn't know what he's talking about here but all of a sudden, the justice department is implicated the state department apparently

is who rudy giuliani says put him in touch with the ukrainian government so the state department has been implicated in some ways, the release of this memo has shown there are even more tentacles here, and things are going to get a lot messier and a lot harder for this president as the investigation continues. >> c both of you. there is a shakeup among the democrats trying to replace president trump. new polls show elizabeth warren catching up to joe biden, who had been the front-runner. garrett haake has more on that tonight. >> reporter: from one democratic front-runner to two. the surge on the campaign trail now unmistakable first came the crowds at rallies coast-to-coast now new polls showing warren in a razor-tight race with joe biden. warren posting narrow leads in pos critical early states, iowa, new hampshire and nationally, though within the margin of error.

in each poll, warren, biden and bernie sanders leaving the rest of the field behind. >> i don't do polls. we're still four and a half months away from the first caucus in iowa and first primary election right here in new hampshire. for me, this is about a chance to get out and talk to people. >> reporter: warren, the progressive fire brand, now gaining support beyond the early states, too. impressing pennsylvania democratic voters who sat down with nbc's harry smith last week >> i like elizabeth warren i like what she represents for the people and i think she's got what it takes. >> reporter: also taking notice of warren's recent surge, joe biden. in recent weeks he's increased attacks on her support for medicare for all saying she's not honest with the american people what it will cost in taxes. lester >> garrett, thank you. there is breaking news in the vaping epidemic. georgia officials announcing the first death there linked to vaping raising the number of deaths to ten across the u.s. and a major shakeup for juul, the biggest name in e-cigarettes as rhode island becomes the fourth state to announce a vaping ban here is nbc's stephanie gosk.

>> reporter: ten people are now dead and there may be many more vaping illnesses than originally thought. over 500 confirmed cases but state health departments tell nbc news they are actively investigating more than 1,000. with pressure building, a big shakeup at e-cigarette maker ul the ceo is out, all marketing will be pulled and lobbying against regulations, the company says, will stop. >> this is about damage control. this is about litigation strategy. >> reporter: attorney jacob says he represents hundreds of clients. >> they are all young people who never smoked cigarettes before who are now heavily addicted to juul and vaping, and most of them have suffered some form of lung injury because of it. >> reporter: in multiple lawsuits, his firm accuses juul

of directly marketing to children in advertisements like this one from 2015 juul recently denied marketing to kids and says it's trying to combat underage use. the company maintains illegal vaping products are to blame for recent illnesses while the government continues to investigate the cause, the fda commissioner is calling teen vaping an epidemic. >> in retrospect, the fda should have acted sooner. we should have begun regulating these devices sooner >> reporter: undoing the damage could prove much harder than preventing it in the first place. stephanie gosk, nbc news, new york. there is late word this evening of a new death linked to a rare mosquito-born illness massachusetts health officials say a fourth person has died in that state from the eastern equine encephalitis in that case ten deaths have been linked to eee, cases have been found now in seven states. there are new developments in the murder trial of a former dallas police officer who fateful shot an unarmed neighbor in his own apartment the defense calling it a tragic mixup. and now we're getting our first

detailed look inside both their apartments gabe gutierrez was inside the courtroom. >> reporter: take a good look at these pictures presented by the defense. on the left, the apartment of amber guyger, a former dallas police officer accused of murder on the right, the apartment of botham jean who police say had been eating ice enm guyger came through his unlocked door and shot and killed him on the stand today, the case's lead investigator testified under cross examination that the layout of the two apartments were similar texas ranger david armstrong also says that residents often went to the wrong apartments. >> there were no clear obvious visual signs showing what level you were on. >> reporter: today the medical examiner showed where jean was shot, testifying the bullet pierced his heart. >> i thought it was my apartment. i thought it was my apartment. >> the defense argued guyger was confused and feared for her safety, mistaking the unarmed jean for a burglar day three of testimony in the high-profile trial comes after body camera footage showed officers scrambling to the scene last september late yesterday, emotional

testimony from jean's neighbor who testified he met jean the day of the shooting but had heard him singing from across the hall each morning. >> what kind of things did you hear him sing? >> gospel music, drake. >> reporter: today the lead investigator said here in court he did not believe amber guyger had committed a crime but jurors were not in the room at the time and the judge ruled they should not hear that opinion. lester >> gabe gutierrez, thank you. much more ahead tonight, including shocking video of a robber posing as a fedex worker, tying up a family. and the price you pay. when to get the best deals on air travel as the holidays draw near hope you can stay with us.

now a daring home invasion captured on camera, one robber posing as a fedex employee, a was stripped of cash and jewels. with more here is miguel almaguer. >> reporter: the first suspect approached this brooklyn home dressed as a fedex driver, forcing his way in as another man scrambles up the stairs. inside with one suspect claiming he's a cop, an elderly couple and their daughter are tied up the top floor ransacked of more than $100,000 in cash and jewelry. the security camera shows one man trying to force the young woman to open a safe, the entire family bound and terrified. >> all of a sudden, baboom. like what was that >> reporter: this neighbor says the men hauled the safe out of the home to a waiting getaway car. >> i came around here and there is this guy coming out of this door pushing this big black box. >> reporter: it's not the first time thieves have impersonated shipping employees or contractors to carry out a heist. police also releasing this video in new york and this one in

houston of men posing as delivery drivers and breaking into homes fedex saying their employees always wear photo id badges, adding you should sign up online to track shipments tonight investigators trying to find these men that did deliver a frightening robbery. up next as we continue tonight, how you can save big on holiday travel right now

we are back now with the price you pay for holiday airfare. experts say the time to buy may be now here is tom costello. >> reporter: it may still be september, but with 64 days until thanksgiving and 91 until

christmas, the countdown clock is already ticking so start checking prices now. >> we'll see prices for both christmas and thanksgiving change more than 100 times between now and the holidays the best time to get a good deal is pretty early, so before the end of october >> reporter: price alert in the last three weeks before thanksgiving, hopper.com expects prices to jump 5 to $10 each day. traveling the sunday or monday before thanksgiving is often 20% cheaper. and prices can jump by $10 per day in the last two weeks before christmas. christmas eve and day are the cheapest but there could be a hiccup. united and american hope the 737 max will no longer be grounded and flying by mid december if not, it could mean fewer airline seats over the holidays. united's ceo today. >> by the end of the year, probably 100 flights per day that would have been flying had we had the aircraft. >> reporter: one last price alert, thanks to brexit, tickets to london are on sale.

>> round trip airfare from the u.s. to the u.k. is down close to 25% on some dates. >> reporter: so if you're already starting to plan the cross-country trip for the holidays, experts say the earlier you buy, the better. lester >> tom costello, thanks. up next, the class act by a teacher that's inspiring america.

>> in tonight's inspiring america, the teacher that went the extra mile so a 10-year-old wouldn't miss her class field trip here is catie beck. >> reporter: ryan neighbors like most 10-year-olds hates to miss an adventure ryan lives with spina bifida relying on her wheelchair to get around so when the fourth grader at the elementary near louisville found out her class would be hiking in a state park last week, her mom,

selly king, worried ryan would have to stay behind. >> i was like oh my gosh, not again. >> reporter: that was until science teacher jim freeman took the weight off ryan's shoulders and quite literally strapped it on to his. about 50 pounds worth. >> i was definitely willing to give it a shot. >> reporter: carrying ryan over boulders and fossil beds alongside her classmates thanks to a special backpack and a special person. >> he was willing to do it to give her that independence and freedom was absolutely melting my heart. >> reporter: his gesture now going viral. >> i can't believe this is all over the world. >> reporter: and facebook responses. you deserve it, sweet girl moving mountains that is one stellar teacher. my heart is so, so, so full. a reminder there is no close room needed to teach a lesson in kindness catie beck, nbc news. >> teachers rock that's our broadcast for tonight. "nightly news" for a wednesday >> sarah: no, i haven't had anything to eat or drink.

yes, i am sure that i want to terminate my pregnancy. [baby crying] >> eric: nicole! is that holly? >> nicole: eric. honey, are you okay? >> eric: yeah, i'm fine. i just came in here to make a pot of coffee, and i must've dozed off. neither one of us got a lot of sleep last night. >> eric: i'm sorry, but i was dreaming that holly was crying. is she okay?eemso be. she just informed me that she's no longer a baby, and she will be picking out the clothes she's wearing for preschool. >> eric: she's independent.

>> nicole: yeah, she is. >> eric: yeah, i wonder where she got that from. >> nicole: i don't know. eric, she seems so happy about her new life, just like the way i am with you. >> xander: calm down, kristen. e taken another woman's embryo and tried to put it in your-- eat job on the whole calming down thing. no, i think you should watch your tone with me. i can't back out. you're blackmailing me. if i do, you'll tell eric he knocked sarah up, and if he finds out it's his baby, i-- [phone beeps] [monitors beeping] >> eli: grandma, you spent

your whole life fighting for your family. now it's time for you to fight for yourself. we can't lose you. we can't. >> jack: so... jennifer's been found, and everything's all right. >> lani: no, we still don't know. >> jack: then where the hell is the commissioner of police? actually doing something? >> lani: sir, the commissioner has every working uniform out looking for ms. horton.